Now read it aloud!

Let me teach you a useful phrase.  It’s probably not what the cool kids are saying, (as in, the real French urban teens), but it’s pretty popular in French classrooms throughout America.  Take a deep breath, snap or swing your arm nonchalantly or something, and say it with me:  “Zut, alors!”  (zoot, Al-ore)  Rough translation:  Well, shucky-darn!  (No, really.  A squeaky clean phrase.)

It’s come in very handy today.  Firstly:

When I got to a new church this morning (on time) the entire congregation was late.  A greeter let us in and led us upstairs, paused, and said, "Um... Tous le monde n'est pas encore arrivé..."  Then the five (literally) people who were there gave us bises, and I haven't felt that awkward in a while.  And that's saying something, living here.  I was so glad I came with a friend!  Don’t get me wrong, they were all amazingly nice!

Another good example of prime usage time:

I like snacks.  And the wonderful thing about snacks is their texture.  I’m not one of those people who can have an ice cube or a yogurt or juice and call it a snack.  In fact, I’m kind of in awe of those people and hope to be one someday, but I probably chose the wrong country to be living in then.  Zut, alors!  (Very good.)  Anyway, I like bread or pretzels or cookies or something not nutritionally a good idea that might not even taste that good, but you can chew it and feel sustained.  The family tends to have bread on a cutting board in the kitchen, which takes care of that, but lately the bread availability has been a little low.  Today I get back from church to see my host parents taking their grandbaby for a walk, and what do I do?  I scurry to the kitchen (remember there was a dinner party last night) and find four (four!) loaves of different kinds of bread.  Anyway, throw into the mix that they didn’t get back for a while and that we ate lunch at 2:00 and dinner at 8:15, and you’ll get… one repentant bread-eater.  There must be a French word for that.

Lastly:

It’s bedtime!  (Oops, that was 30 minutes ago.)  I’m in the bathroom washing my hands (salle de bain, translated "room of bath" because the toilet’s almost always in a separate room "toilette") when suddenly the lights go out!  Say it on your own now!  I literally did say it aloud this time, in the dark bathroom.  Now all is well, however, and you know a new phrase!  (Unless you’re one of those many French students out there. I’ll teach you slang terms for police and boyfriend another day.  Still from a classroom, so still nice and clean.)